In today’s world, cybersecurity attacks are not just terrible, but extremely common. We hope that by studying the process and results of several different cybersecurity attacks and simulating these attacks on our own website, we will be able to educate on the dangers of unsafe internet behavior. We plan to cover multiple different types of attacks, including: DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks, Phishing Attacks, Password Attacks, Ransomware Attacks, and Man-In-The-Middle (MITM) Attacks.
Spencer Evenson
I am a computer science major with a business minor. I love technology overall and am constantly surrounded by it. I enjoy hanging out with friends and playing video games in my free time. I enjoy using my four-wheeler to race on the ice during the winter. The first thing that came to mind when asked to choose a topic for this research project was a topic in cybersecurity. I wanted to offer a means for people to know what to look out for and how to avoid becoming a victim of these malevolent people because I have been the target of numerous scams and attacks.
Colton Lemanski
I am a Computer Science Major, Spanish and Music minor. In my free time and available space, I like to play video games and talk with friends about whatever comes to mind. I was interested, and quite excited, to pursue a project in Cybersecurity, due to the exposure I get to virtual scams and malware (as it is often present when using my computer as often as I do). I truly hope that the information we were able to give will help people to remain safe on the internet.
In 2020, it was recorded that the average business or organization loses approximately $4,000,000 in every data breach. As startling as this statistic is, the more startling statistic is that over 104 security breaches have been recorded worldwide as of October 2022.
Furthermore, another statistic is that 96% of popular organizations have reported a phishing scam being run through their email, and 75% of organizations have been hit by ransomware, a percentage that has increased by 14% from 2021. Moreover, out of the 64% of these organizations that paid the appropriate ransom, only four out of every ten actually receive their data back.
On a local level, a reported statistic is that 1.2 out of every 5 billion internet users use a VPN to ensure their privacy and safety, and 77% of American users have an antivirus program installed on their computer.
Because of time availability and the resources that would be required to complete a simulation of every kind of attack, we chose to focus on the most common ones: Password Attacking and Phishing.
A password attack is defined as an attack that uses malicious code to violate the authority and privacy of another person, stealing valuable information in order to access, and expose, personal records.
To demonstrate the process behind these kinds of attacks, we developed a program to simulate the capabilities of malicious programs; We developed PassJackR in order to simulate different kinds of password attacks, and a fake Instagram login in order to simulate phishing scams.
This software or hardware is developed for general use in a variety of information management applications. It is not developed or intended for use in any inherently dangerous applications, including applications that may create a risk of personal injury. If you use this software or hardware in dangerous applications, then you shall be responsible to take all appropriate failsafe, backup, redundancy, and other measures to ensure its safe use. My affiliates and I disclaim any liability for any damages caused by use of this software or hardware in dangerous applications.
